Let’s Play Play Continues!
Fresh off the heels of our first production in FRIGID Let’s Play Play was selected to continue with a new life as a part of The Brick Theater’s Game Play Festival! Stay tuned for more news as we bring a new version of Ben Ferber’s exciting script to life!
On the Internet everyone can hear you scream.
What happens when it’s your job to be friends with someone? When do you compromise artistic integrity for cash? Two Internet personalities skyrocket to stardom with a new “Let’s Play” video game show. But when a female gamer joins them, things get ugly. And then even uglier.
Let’s Play Play is about selling out, and how we use Internet personalities as replacements for real friends. It also embodies the infamously horrifying vitriol of YouTube comments.
Part of the 2015 Game Play Festival.
Production Photos
Photos feature Brittany K. Allen, Jonathan Iglesias*, and Paul Karle
Photos by Todd Brian Backus
Praise for Let’s Play Play
“Easily the most interesting production of this year’s bunch is Let’s Play Play.” – Matt Hawkins, Attract Mode
“Let’s Play Play stages a layered snapshot of Internet culture in action… A production that skillfully weaves together in-person, online, and text interaction… Small flourishes give additional force to the big-picture questions and critiques that Let’s Play Play puts forth.” – Dr. Leah Richards & Dr. John Zeigler, Culture Catch
“Let’s Play Play deals nicely with this IRL/URL tug-of-war, something to think about the next time you try to have an opinion on the internet.” – Liz Richards, Indie Theater Now
FRIGID New York Sell Out Award
Hot Pepper Theater
Director Todd Brian Backus and Playwright Ben Ferber discuss Let’s Play Play, gamergate, and videogames with some ghost sauce for extra kick.
Let’s Play Play
a new play by Ben Ferber | directed by Todd Brian Backus
Featuring: Brittany K. Allen (Bayes), Jonathan Iglesias* (Dresher),
and Paul Karle (Flood)
Nicholas Orvis (assistant director, stage manager), Shannon Stockwell (dramaturg),
Mary Heatwole (lighting design), Emily White (costume design)
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association
Who’s Who
Ben Ferber (playwright) is a playwright/director whose work focuses on technology and the Internet. Hi. His tech thriller For the Lulz, also directed by Todd Brian Backus, headlined Portland Stage Company’s inaugural Studio Rep series and was nominated for the PEER Award for New Frontiers. Other writing credits include Keynote Speech in An Exhibition of Intimate Objects at the Butt Museum (BrainMelt Consortium), aliterary reading (The Shed), Shut Down (PowerOut), and, with Donald McEwan, The Dickening (Midtown International Theatre Festival), Everything Seems so Plausible at 1 A.M.! (Common Ground Theatre, Bare Theatre, others), Well, That Escalated Quickly, and five seasons of Twyzzlers for Everyone Forever presents: Death Spares Not the Tiger, an epic radio drama (WOBC 91.5). Ben is currently a member of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Directing Corps, and he co-runs Hot Pepper Theater.
Todd Brian Backus (director) is a director/producer/illustrator/photographer and someday he’ll finish adapting a play or two. Directing credits include:Let’s Play Play by Ben Ferber (FRIGID), The Shadow by Shannon Stockwell (PortFringe), For the Lulz by Ben Ferber (Studio Rep), Bystanders by Shannon Stockwell, three installments of the staged reading series StageWhispers, and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde by Moises Kaufman (Honors Thesis). Todd co-curated and produced two seasons of StageWhispers in Portland and is looking to bring the series to NYC. He has designed for Tandem Theatre Co., The NY NeoFuturists, and Portland Stage Company. Online Todd can be found on his website www.toddbrianbackus.com; at PlayPerDay, where he reads and reviews scripts ; and Hot Pepper Theater, where he eats habaneros and talks about shows.
Brittany K. Allen (Bayes) is a performer and writer living in Brooklyn. Recent New York credits include In Rooms Such as These (Signature Center), Too Many Lenas (Ars Nova, New Ohio), The Three Sisters (HiveMind Theatre), and the original run of Let’s Play Play (Under St Marks). Britt also performs monthly with her sketch comedy group, Mudville, at the Treehouse Theater. Her essays and fiction are published or forthcoming in/on The Tishman Review, BUST Magazine, Reductress, and Mercer Street. BFA, NYU-Tisch (ETW, Playwrights Horizons). Pertinent portals:brittanykathrynallen.com; @Britt_Kathryn. Thanks to Todd n’ Ben, parents, and urban family!
Jonathan Iglesias (Dresher) is an accomplished film, TV, and theater actor. Television credits include MTV’s One Bad Choice and CBS’s Blue Bloods. Jonathan’s Regional credit is, Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating, and Marriage. He is known Off- Broadway for The Erlkings Directed by Saheem Ali. Iglesias is also a print model for Pepsi, Starbucks, and DirecTV.
Paul Karle (Flood) is a New York based Actor. Having recently completed his Masters at The New School for Drama. He is excited to be making his debut with PowerOut in the role of Flood. Recent credits include Luke in An Inferno at NSD. Sending love to family, friends, and most of all Jessica Plumbley for their support. BA in Theatre from Siena Heights University. Managed by Richard Rosenwald Associates.
Nicholas Orvis (assistant director, stage manager) is a director, stage manager, dramaturg, and all-around theatrical practitioner based in New York City. Recent production work includes PAing PowerOut’s production of Not Afraid by Nora Sørena Casey. Directing credits include Peach, or Pig Land (Tandem Theatre Collective/PortFringe Festival); The Cardioluthier (Kirkland Art Center); The Tempest (Wesleyan University Theater Dept.); and Under Milk Wood and Twelve Angry Men (Wesleyan University Second Stage). He has also directed readings and scene nights, and worked as assistant director or dramaturg, at Portland Stage Company, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and Premiere Stages at Kean University, and is currently working as an administrative intern at New Dramatists. Nick is a co-founder and Artist-at-Large of the Tandem Theatre Collective, a geographically separated but aesthetically linked network of young artists dedicated to innovative methods of creating theatre and devising new works.
Shannon Stockwell is a dramaturg living in San Francisco. She is the publications associate for American Conservatory Theater, where she researches, writes, and edits articles for Words on Plays, the theater’s acclaimed dramaturgical resource guide. Recent dramaturgy credits include The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams (A.C.T. Fellows Project), Imelda, by Philip Estrera (A.C.T. Sky Festival); For the Lulz, by Ben Ferber (PowerOut). While an intern at Portland Stage from 2011-2012, she dramaturged Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh, by Joel Gross, and The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen and adapted by Anita Stewart. Stockwell is also a playwright, and is the author of The Shadow and The Continental Point of Inaccessibility, both of which have had readings directed by Todd Brian Backus.
Mary Heatwole (lighting design) is a lighting designer, stage manager, and writer. Past design credits include Let’s Play Play (FRIGID – Horse Trade), The Tennessee Williams Project (Bedlam Ensemble), Commitment Cure (Strawberry Festival), Young Frankenstein (Weathervane Theater). Other recent credits include Above/Below (Broken Box Mime Theater), A Star Has Burned My Eye (The Brick), Not Afraid (PowerOut), the food was terrible (Bushwick Starr), and Alphabetical (Columbia University). Many thanks to Ben, Todd, and Nick!
Emily White (costume design) is a freelance costume designer and current MFA candidate at Tisch School of the Arts. Her most recent project was Not Afraid, which was produced by PowerOut and directed by Ben Ferber! San Francisco work includes Communiqué n° 10 at the Cutting Ball Theater, Crumble, or Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake, and ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore for Bigger Than a Breadbox Theater Co as well as Cloud Nine with the American Conservatory Theater’s MFA program. She has worked for The California Shakespeare Theater (Costume Design Assistant), The American Conservatory Theater (Costume Shop Admin Assistant), and The Santa Fe Opera (Costume Apprentice).
PowerOut Theatre Company 